Revisiting the challenges of ozone depletion in Life Cycle Assessment

Recent work has highlighted the interconnected impacts of stratospheric ozone depletion, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and climate change across various sectors, including water quality, agriculture, human health, and biodiversity. Increased UV-B exposure has diverse environmental impacts, including potential benefits like enhanced plant resistance and reduced vitamin D deficiency. However, quantification of these effects remains incomplete. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) serves to quantify environmental impacts of product systems. This review revisits challenges the related to ozone depletion in LCA. It is shown that the currently available LCA ozone depletion practices are unsuitable for supporting decision-making. The combined effects of outdated background databases and incomplete impact assessment methods must be further investigated. Collaboration with atmospheric scientists and expansion of substances covered by characterization models are required. The study emphasizes the need to address interlinkages between impact categories and recommends climate scenario-dependent characterization for robust decision-making in an uncertain world.